Thursday: Delivers remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast. In the afternoon, the President will travel to Leesburg, VA to deliver remarks at the House Democratic Issues Conference

Friday: Attends meetings at the White House

****

****

Steve Benen: Last night, if you were watching the Super Bowl you saw a rather powerful ad on gun policy …. The spot, sponsored by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, urges policymakers to approve a universal background check, and features “America, the Beautiful” against the backdrop of young children.

About 12 hours earlier, Americans could see theNRA’s Wayne LaPierre on “Fox News Sunday,” making a very different kind of argument: “I make the same thing during the campaign, when he said to people I will not take away your rifle, shotgun, handgun. They leafletted the country with flyers like this, ‘Obama is not going to take your gun, Obama is going to protect gun rights.’ And, now, he’s trying to take away all three.”

….. therein lies the problem: the policy debate has become increasingly strained because one of the most influential lobbying groups in Washington relies on arguments based on evidence the organization has simply made up…..

Josh Marshall (TPM): I just found out that last September the NRA published an official list of gun enemies including the ADA, AMA, ADL, Mel Brooks, Chaka Khan and hundreds of other domestic gun enemies…..

The following organizations have lent monetary, grassroots or some other type of direct support to anti-gun organizations. In many instances, these organizations lent their name in support of specific campaigns to pass anti-gun legislation such as the March 1995 HCI “Campaign to Protect Sane Gun Laws.” Many of these organizations were listed as “Campaign Partners,” for having pledged to fight any efforts to repeal the Brady Act and the Clinton “assault weapons” ban. All have officially endorsed anti-gun positions.

Michael Tomasky: The Strangest NRA Story Yet – The fact that the NRA was keeping a list of its foes isn’t all that bizarre. But the list itself is positively loony — yet more evidence of just how nuts the NRA is

One of the sure markers of the paranoid mind is the urge to keep lists. In particular, lists of enemies, subversives, no-goodniks …. It virtually goes without saying that the keepers of such lists are always the bullies who survive by fomenting hatred and making sure that their constituents stay in a state of constant agitation. And so it was no surprise to learn over the weekend that the NRA has a little list of 497 people and organizations who are in some way, shape, or form anti-gun. It makes for hilarious reading, although it’s sort of frightening to think about the demented minds of the people who assembled it.

Paul Krugman: ….. There was, however, one piece of the reform that was a shining example of how to do it right: the creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a stand-alone agency with its own funding, charged with protecting consumers against financial fraud and abuse. And sure enough, Senate Republicans are going all out in an attempt to kill that bureau.

….. Right now, all the media focus is on the obvious hot issues — immigration, guns, the sequester, and so on. But let’s try not to let this one fall through the cracks: just four years after runaway bankers brought the world economy to its knees, Senate Republicans are using every means at their disposal, violating all the usual norms of politics in the process, in an attempt to give the bankers a chance to do it all over again.

Steve Benen: Long-time viewers of The Rachel Maddow Show may recall the “Geek Week” segments aired in May 2010, which included an interview with Energy Secretary Steven Chu. (The segment also noted why At Least I Am A Nerd.com still redirects to the show’s video player.)

Nearly three years later, we’ve learned that Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, will leave his post in President Obama’s second term, stepping down from the Department of Energy later this month. With this in mind, it’s worth pausing to appreciate the significance of Chu’s first-term efforts, which haven’t generated front-page news, but which carry extraordinary significance…..

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230 Responses to “Rise and Shine”

Wake up all you O’s!!!! It’s another great getting up day again on the TOD stump!!!

Wake up everybody no more sleepin in bed
No more backward thinkin time for thinkin ahead
The world has changed so very much
From what it used to be so
there is so much hatred war an’ poverty
Wake up all the teachers time to teach a new way
Maybe then they’ll listen to whatcha have to say
Cause they’re the ones who’s coming up and the world is in their hands
when you teach the children teach em the very best you can.

The world won’t get no better if we just let it be
The world won’t get no better we gotta change it yeah,
just you and me.

Wake up all the doctors make the ol’ people well
They’re the ones who suffer an’ who catch all the hell
But they don’t have so very long before the Judgement Day
So won’tcha make them happy before they pass away.
Wake up all the builders time to build a new land
I know we can do it if we all lend a hand
The only thing we have to do is put it in our mind
Surely things will work out they do it every time.

The world won’t get no better if we just let it be
The world won’t get no better we gotta change it yeah,
just you and me. – Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes

Looks like it’s mainly Germany arlight 99ts, but one Champions League match that took place in England is under investigation – that’s the biggie! Would have involved one of England’s top 4/5 clubs, me intrigued!

Grrr, I missed it! Congrats, Cookem! You were so smart not to waste time commenting on the end of previous thread. I restrained myself all the way through, but then succumbed when Hf stepped on my own toes. 😉

Okay, TODobots, it’s Monday, Chips’ favourite day of the week! I can just imagine how alert she is today after all that Super Bowl-ing and re-watching of *certain* ads 😆

Good Monday night/Tuesday morning, 99ts! I have decided that I won’t vent when people are so ‘outraged’ that they push the same button repeatedly – too much credibility, and too much space, given them. I was rolling my eyes or chuckling at the absurdity when my friend, Hopefruit stepped on my sensitive toes, so I had to tap her shoulder and tell her.😉

Not a rule, 99ts, but I think arguments sometimes end up in gunfire when they start out with inflammatory words. I make it a rule not to dialogue with people who start out with (what I consider) unprovoked angry swearing. (I don’t like the un-angry swearing either, but I have learned to step around that.) I sorta like words, and it touches something ‘off’ in me when people reach for the lowest form of language to START what they consider a valid discussion. Such a start is an indication to me that I couldn’t have a meeting of minds with them, so I don’t bother trying.

good point vc – it was the angry swearing that caught me – I have been known to swear – and quite often – but not in that fashion in print. I rather like that something so negative has turned into a positive discussion – thanks.

Stop projecting: You’re the one with the problem who seems unable to “let go.” You’ve been agitating, hurling insults and accusations about the same damn issue for the last several months. Don’t come here with the same passive-aggressive behavior and expect me to ignore it. If Chips wants to ban me from this blog, then so be it.

VC felt that I stepped on her toes because I stated that you were blogging from Canada – which is the TRUTH. I didn’t say anything negative to or about VC. Other people accused you of being a paid RW troll, from Red State, DKOS, etc, yet I’m the one who has the problem?

It’s a problem for you because truth and analysis are clearly not your strengths. Hyperbole & propaganda sans facts seem to be your strengths. You’d fit in quite well with the American corporate media!

oooOOOOOOOOOooooh….them are fighting words. If there’s any cheating scandal, we all know Man U would be leading the charge. There’ve been suspicions for years that Man U does match-fixing and pays referees to cheat for them. Recent example is Oct. 28, 2012. Clear cheating took place and sports commenters from the BBC to the Guardian all wrote articles and tweeted about it.

Tsk, tsk, fibs! Read the Guardian minute-by-minute account of the match – referee made a bunch of mistakes, some pro-United, some pro-Chelsea. eg

51 min: Ferdinand sends a glorious pass down the inside-right channel for Valencia. His cross is blocked by David Luiz and runs through to Cech. Sorry, correction: his cross is blocked by the outstretched right arm of David Luiz and runs through to Cech. That is a blatant penalty. Valencia is furious.

It’s Monday, so I’m going to refrain from saying how you couldn’t even remember the name of your college because it hasn’t accomplished anything of worth. It’s Monday, so I’m going to refrain from saying how you couldn’t even remember the name of your college because it doesn’t have anyone of note who graduated. It’s Monday, so I’m going to refrain from saying how you couldn’t even remember the name of your college because it’s not as great at UT Austin which has Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, has scientists and people in technology who received the National Science and National Technology awards, is building a medical school, is a pioneer in HIV research which can improve the lives of HIV patients and is coming up with vaccinations that can help save peoples lives.

And I do appraciate your restraint, although I will tell you that I did finally remember the name and last I checked my school whopped up on UT Austin in basketball in December. Also, already has a medical school plus one of the highest rated schools of veterinary medicine in the country, has nobel prizes to its credit and, most importantly of all, is the alma mater of one of the greatest people in the world, moi.

/slapping forehead/ Groan! There she goes again, stirring up trouble! Sigh! Moments like these I think of Chips Chica’s poor mother – she must have been quite a handful to steer (away from ‘trouble’) in her youth! 🙄

I never say thanks to you Chip and I read your blog everyday, thanks for all of these fantastic photos that you put here, it is why I come back every day. These are really historic photos that you provide. Thanks for your hard work in this and providing this blog for people to voice their opinion. Maybe sometimes not so good, and sometimes passionate.

A gentle reminder everyone: the blog doesn’t have many rules, but one of them is ‘be civil to each other’. Pleeeeeeeeease when you’re disagreeing with someone’s point of view, don’t be personally abusive, just argue things out – or ignore each other. Thanking you.

Thank you for that reminder, that it’s possible to state your disagreement without the personal insults that seem to increase in vitriol with each subsequent comment. Personally, I like a little variance in opinion, makes things more interesting. And it’s perfectly understandable that not everyone will see every issue in the exact same way and all have a right to express themselves. And President Obama has set the example on how to behave when you have an opposing opinion—–state your case in a dignified manner and move on down the road.

Hiya Dotster. I’m one to talk, it’s a regular occurence for me to lose my head in a, well, heated debate, but again, I’m just asking everyone here to leave out the personal insults when they’re disagreeing with each other, it’s horrible.

It’s snowing on my side of TOD, which means no running today. For exercise, I’m seriously considering removing the snow manually with one of those nearly extinct shovel thingys. That would probably cause much conversation around the neighbor’s breakfast table as the young ones ask, ‘what’s that thing Mrs. Cookemom has in her hands, why is she throwing the snow, why doesn’t the snow just blow out of it?’

😆 😆 😆 Cookemom, you almost always make me laugh. What do you mean .’nearly extinct shovel thingys’? My three are well-used (well, not so much so far this winter)! Can’t afford those new-fangled snowblower thingy which die after a little while anyways, but I can SO hear a little 21st century child asking that question.

GM Chipsticks, TOD. I see you soccer hooligans are throwing a tizzy over Qatar buying the world cup, or whatever other currupt thing that goings on in CONCAF/FIFA………. I remember the good ol days when it was just about Klinsmann, Maridona and Norreaga buying off the Columbian national team. Whats wrong w/ you people?

OoooooOOooh….watch out. There are more facets to the Ray Lewis case than are understood by the general public. Those Baltimore Ravens fans will come after you and there are many on TOD. Let them enjoy their win or you’ll be running for the hills all week. They don’t play.

Please do not believe the media on this one Chips. I watched the trial. They had no evidence, nada. I was bottle feeding and caring for an orphaned kitty. I watched the whole trial on court TV. I was holding her and rocking her and the other stuff that goes with raising a kitty. Not as easy as human kind. And a puppy is even more time consuming. Unless you have a husband who is jealous of all the time you are caring for puppy.😉 Oh the stories I have. But I had plenty of time to see the whole trial.

There were 3 victims here. Mr Routh will no doubt spend the rest of his life in jail where there will be little, if any, help for his condition. Was this amateur psychology I wonder? It will be interesting to hear on who’s recommendation they took him shooting. It’s truly sad.

I bet that match-fixing that occurred in England during the Champions League has something to do with Manchester United. Loser team with dirty players. They cheated along with the referee on Oct. 28, 2012 and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were part of this cheating ring. It’s just a matter of time eh Man U? Alex Ferguson, Rooney and all of them. Tainted.

Seriously NRA? Chaka Kan is a “gun enemy?” The ridiculous carries on.

Sad to see Sec. Chu leave. He was one of the unsung heroes of the Obama administration and was the reason the oil spill was resolved. His invention came through brilliantly. The energy policies he advocated makes the country stronger. I wish him well in his future endeavors.

They were a bloodthirsty lot – most of those kings – any rival had to be killed off before they had a chance to kill. Didn’t use guns very often either. Some seriously horrible deaths. I was recently reading a history of the monarchy from 1066 – the intrigue was never ending.

Some of the prior threads had discussions concerning gun control legislation. Thanks for the links to some of the ads that have been produced.

Just my two cents…

From what I can tell, most of the gun control legislation being proposed is focused on tracking purchases and limiting access (e.g., background checks). It seems to me that people will buy the automatic and assault weapons and magazine clips as long as they are available to buy. What legislation is being proposed that directly impacts the manufacturers and retailers (including the promoters of gun shows)? What legislation is being proposed that focuses on deterring the production and retail of these weapons and ammunition for purchase other than for the military (after all, when is the last time the military purchased is weaponry from Walmart)? I know that this would be difficult given the deep pockets and lobbyists, but just wondered if this was an approach had even the slightest degree of feasibility.

I’m sure there are more enlightened, more knowledgeable, and more eloquent TODer’s who can elaborate on the pros and cons of such a suggestion…just want to know what others think.

I think that the assault weapons ban will limit what production occurs and what manufacturers and retailers can get away with. I think it would be impossible to completely control production/manufacture, given the beliefs about a free market and limited government control of commerce, but banning the military style weapons at least designates them as controlled substances, to some degree.

I think a real problem is getting a hold of what is already out there. There are over 300 million guns in circulation, and not a few rocket launchers, from what we’ve seen… When people have to conduct background checks before private sales, we can start to get a handle on what’s being sold to whom outside of the traditional gun store sales. If guns need to be registered, even better.

This is definitely a tricky problem, because the NRA have successfully tied gun ownership to “freedom”, which is a joke. There are plenty of countries who have active gun cultures (Canada, being one of them), and the levels of massacre do not reach the same heights (or lows). Even one step in the right direction in this case will make a huge difference.

They don’t seem to “do anything” this family – other than shuffle money around & get a % of that money while shuffling. Do I have that right? Mitt keeps saying he was a business man – when all I have seen is that he was a financier – or even a financial advisor.

Good morning Ms. Chips and TOD family. I hope everyone had a super Super Bowl weekend (I know I did :D) and going forward today, I hope for everyone to have beautiful and exquisite day today. Congrats Cookemom on what appears to be your 100th straight first position😀. I love your tenaciousness.🙂

// The vast majority of part-time workers in the U.S. don’t have employer-based health insurance, according to a new study from the ADP Research Institute — an issue the health care reform law will help address once it is fully in effect.
The majority of Americans access health insurance through their jobs. But the results from ADP’s study highlight the fact that the current employer-based model often leaves low-wage workers, and particularly those who work fewer than 40 hours a week, in a coverage gap. Only a small percentage of part-time employees are offered health insurance through work, and many of them can’t afford to pay into those plans — but they also typically can’t afford to purchase insurance plans on their own, either.
Fortunately, several Obamacare provisions — including extending Medicaid coverage to additional low-income Americans, providing Americans with subsidies to help them purchase health care on state-based insurance markets, and requiring employers with more than 50 workers to provide health insurance — will start to eliminate some of those coverage gaps and help part-time workers better afford health coverage://

with the economic news released last Friday, the average work week is 38 hours. This is done by design of course. Yet, productivity continues to rise and is at one of its highest rates. Those part-time, non-heatlhcare provided, people are being worked at a pace that surpasses that when companies had full time, fully staffed workers. When they get sick from the stress of having to perform at such a ridiculous pace or the threat of losing their jobs, they won’t have any insurance to take care of them. These same people are working multiple part-time jobs at this increased pace. It is too dad, but never front and center. The only numbers that matter are the unemployment rate, the GDP, the debt and the deficit, not the impact of businesses stealing the quality of life from families. smh

Former Mayor Ed Koch, a Quintessential New Yorker, Mourned at Manhattan Funeral

// Ed Koch is being remembered as the quintessential New Yorker at his funeral. “There’s no doubt that Ed is beaming,” Mayor Bloomberg told the crowd of hundreds at Manhattan’s Temple Emanu-El. Bill Clinton also is speaking, and is serving as a representative for President Barack Obama at the funeral.

Koch died Friday of congestive heart failure at the age of 88. The funeral is being held at one of the nation’s most prominent synagogues, a Reform Jewish congregation on Fifth Avenue. //

Water is pumped up through the boat in the center to each “flyer” through the hoses you see in the video They are holding onto valves that control the amount of water, lowering or raising their heights. Kinda like when you turn on the sink. You control the water pressure.

I don’t think he was ever running. It made no sense. Jeb has sense enough to wait until the Bush name is viewed less a negative before he runs for anything. No way the Romneys as power hungry as they are, would put their name out there in a political arena this soon.

If there’s ever a time that the Bush name is viewed less negatively, then shame on voters. Thousands of Americans dead and many more thousands wounded. Potentially millions of innocent Iraqis dead. Hundreds incarcerated in Gitmo with no trial, subjected to torture. Families destroyed. And that’s just on the foreign front. The domestic front is just as ugly. Jeb himself is forever tied to Trayvon’s death because of his racist “Stand your ground” law, and he displayed a profound lack of awareness of reality at the RNC when he tried to absolve his brother of every wrongdoing. The Romney’s would do well to note these things – especially since Tagg is the one who threatened the President.

It’s a sadly too familiar story, but the HBO documentary airing tonight looks interesting—-“Mea Maxima Culpa” re “sex, lies and the Catholic Church” and the Milwaukee case where a priest abused 200 deaf boys, chosen reportedly because they could not report the abuse—–and the inspirational story of how these now men fought back to see justice in this case.

LOL! Of course the media was just dying to know about PBO’s reaction to the blackout last night. They should just put up a media spy cam at the WH to monitor the President’s daily activities and utterances. Sheesh.

Carney on Obama on the blackout: “His initial response was, I hope everybody’s okay. After that it was impatience.”

Somehow I don’t mind hearing the human interest stuff that PBO does and where he goes. I can’t remember caring a fig about the everyday life of any other president. I enjoy reading about him being so grounded and just regular, no pretenses, no hoity-toitism. It’s refreshing. I think some of the tweets fills that for me. I understand if others feels it’s a invasion of privacy, but to me it just shows how normal he and his family is. It drives the teabutts nuts. They can’t find anything untoward about him so they have to make things up. They see he epitomizes what they’ve always claimed for themsleves, family values, even more so than their idolized politicians. He’s ripped through their stereotype and have to resort to the crazy talk. I say, keep it up

John McCain is disgusting. Whatever you think of Ahmadinejad, he’s a world leader with whom the United States is trying to negotiate peace. At least show some diplomacy for the people of that country, many of whom want to be free. That tweet really shows why the world should be forever thankful that President Obama won the election in 2008. I despise John McCain – what a tiny little man.

[Sorry to bring back that old topic, but found Greg Sargent’s article of interest.]:

So it’s settled: President Obama does, in fact, do skeet shooting at Camp David, just as he has claimed.

This controversy is only the latest sign that the right remains very, very good at getting news orgs to follow shiny bouncy balls. To be clear, I don’t see any problem with fact checking the president’s statement, as many others have. That’s what the fact checkers should be doing. Rather, the problem here is one of overkill and misdirection. Much of the reporting on the back and forth over this controversy doesn’t clarify what is perhaps the most important fact about it: The question of whether Obama did or didn’t engage in skeet shooting is utterly, totally, completely irrelevant to any of the actual policy proposals that are being discussed right now.

The “gun rights” brigade has grabbed on to this controversy with the very deliberate goal of using it to distort the true nature of the gun reform debate. […..]

Indeed. It ignores the fact that gun reform will only happen if so-called “responsible gun owners” can be weened from the NRA, thereby weakening them – and what better way to do that than to show that you are one of them (responsible gun owners), putting NRA lies to rest.

Well my team gave it a good shot yesterday but fell short. All in all I enjoyed the game…but after trying to catch up on all the post, I have one burning question…did no one like the ad with the senior citizens sneaking out of the nursing home to party? I thought it was hilarious! My favorite!
Jennifer Hudson and the Sandy Hook students were very moving and the anti-gun ad indeed was the only ad that really mattered.

And Beyonce is one hell of an entertainer! It was a treat to see Destiny’s Child together again.

Fav scene in the Taco Bell Commercial: one of the old ladies walking out of the restroom, right behind the young dude with the lipstick kiss on his cheek. Both trying to look non-chalant. Hysterical….hope we’re all like that at that age…

I work for health care (hospice) organization and I guess that’s why I enjoyed it so much. In spite of some of the health situations, we have some real characters for clients. Sorry I missed the interview.

The rumor last week was that Soledad was fired from TeaNN. I guess she wasn’t.